9 students of prestigious Bosphorus University had been arrested on charges of "propagating terrorism" after being involved in a tension on campus with students who were celebrating Turkey's military operation in Northern Syria's Afrin. The students in Silivri Prison have written a letter, addressing their peers on campus.

Dear Boğaziçi,

First of all, let us state the obvious. The libertarian, democratic and among all conscientious stance of our University which defends the right to expression of all students from any background caused Boğaziçi to be the target for some communities and undergo ever-worsening unlawful/political enforcements. As your friends imprisoned in Silivri Jail, we are of the opinion that the judgements about us could be explained by nothing but the aforementioned political context. For that reason, as we remain in this prison where our freedom is restricted, our consciences are clear and our morale is high. The most important factor that keeps our morale high is the news which our lawyer friends bring about you. You deem us free here by your solidarity, by “making our absence present” in our University as well as on a broader libertarian platform and by laying bare all the unlawfulness and violation of rights we absurdly have gone through. We thank every each of you and salute your solidarity most sincerely. We appreciate your devoted attempts and unity at the face of persecution, and believe that the components of the solidarity will expand and grow stronger to promulgate such courage.

We think that the incidents and enforcements bear the characteristics of an attack on the universal principles of the academy, free thinking, discussion and scientific production. We can say that the difficult circumstances of detention and imprisonment, the fact that we have not been able to access our books and notebooks for more than three weeks, and perhaps most importantly the fact that we are withheld from the University environment are the unfortunate reflections of this attack.

At the face of such attacks, we strive to turn the place we are in into a university, in order to think, discuss and produce. About any subject that has humanitarian and academic value such as mathematics, philosophy and literature we continue to think and write -to the extent that we are capable of- and discuss not only among ourselves but also with the other imprisoned friends in our dorm. (We hope that soon we’ll be able to send you what we have written so far.) Hereby, we explicitly state: We are having difficulty accessing the books and resources necessary for us to think and produce and we know that you will stand in solidarity with us regarding this matter, as well.

Lastly, we’d like to mention that we love you and our University very much. We miss you and keep dreaming of the day we’ll see one another. We salute your solidarity once again. We know that we are not alone here, you are with us and we are together. We want you to know for sure that we are with you, too. We will not yield.

With love and solidarity,

The Boğaziçi Students at Silivri Prison